


let someone see right through

by chanjpeg



Category: ATEEZ (Band), Stray Kids (Band), TWICE (Band)
Genre: 5+1, 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - High School, Cheerleaders, Enemies to Friends, M/M, but he's petty as heck, cheer captain!seonghwa, everyone else is a cheerleader, felix is afraid of the ocean, hongjoong is a sunshine baby, hongjoong is afraid of the dark, its one sided enemies tho, seonghwa is doing his best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-19 01:26:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19346743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chanjpeg/pseuds/chanjpeg
Summary: five times cheer captain seonghwa thought hongjoong was a complete phony and the one time he didn't.orseonghwa thinks hongjoong's entire personality is a ploy to get popular until he finally sees him in his most vulnerable state.





	let someone see right through

**Author's Note:**

> just a shitty seongjoong fic where seonghwa thinks hongjoong is being fake as hell but hes actually the most genuine bean ever. im tired and idk what else to say but the ending is kinda open bc it could be romantic or platonic depending on what you're feelin. enjoy!

𝐢.

Tryout day had always been Seonghwa’s least favourite day of the semester. Not because he was one of those stuck up cheer captains who were adamant that only their best friends and people they could control were allowed to be on the team. No, Seonghwa loved seeing the diverse amount of people who showed up for the sport he was most passionate about. He loved seeing the spirit and light in all these young people’s faces while they showed him their own passion.

 

Unfortunately, passion isn’t enough to make it on the cheer squad so Seonghwa often has to watch all that wonderful spirit in their eyes dim when he rejects their applications. This, according to Seonghwa, is the worst part of being cheer captain. He has to maintain a certain level of strictness and severity to make sure his team actually listens to him and works hard. 

 

Though Seonghwa isn’t the nicest of people, he prides himself on how genuine and straight forward he is. He’d never been outright mean to anyone in his life, but he doesn’t take shit from anyone or let them manipulate him in any way. The one thing Seonghwa hates above all else is fake people. People who twist their personalities to fit the expectations of others, only to do a complete 360 once they got what they wanted. 

 

Which is why when a dainty boy with a blinding smile just about  _ bounced _ into the school gymnasium, immediately spouting a story about how he had “never really thought about cheerleading until the day before when he saw the poster for tryouts and had spent the entire night practicing a routine”, Seonghwa couldn’t get past the whole  _ fake _ personality. For some reason the only thing he could see was this factory-made, plastic-like person who was  _ clearly _ only trying out to get popular. It immediately rubbed Seonghwa the wrong way, yet he couldn’t reject the boy purely based on his personality. After all, they were quite desperate for new cheerleaders because a bunch of their members had up and transferred to this newly opened high school as soon as the last school term had ended. 

 

Seonghwa sat through the tiny boy’s routine in absolute silence while his two vice captains were losing their minds beside him. There was  _ no way  _ he could reject him now. 

 

“Your name is Kim Hongjoong?” He asked, trying to act as nonchalant as possible.

 

“Yes, that’s me!” The boy cheerily replied, trying to catch his breath.

 

“Well, Hongjoong. I think it’s safe to say you’re on the team.” Seonghwa announced, glancing at his smiling friends who nodded in agreement. “Fill out this form and return it to one of us by the end of the week. We start practice on Monday at 3:15pm sharp, don’t be late.” 

 

Hongjoong’s face immediately lit up with the most dazzling smile Seonghwa had ever seen. 

 

“Thank you so much, oh my god!” The small boy rushed towards the three cheerleaders sitting in front of him to take the form. “I won’t let you down I promise!” 

 

And with that, Hongjoong had near skipped out of the gym, disappearing past the line of students waiting to try out. Seonghwa would be lying if he said he didn’t notice the way the room got just a bit more dim once the boy had left.

 

“Well, I think we found our main hype member.” Chuckled Wooyoung, flipping through his pile of paper for the next person’s application. 

 

“Yeah..” Seonghwa grumbled lowly.

 

“Next, please!” Yunho called out to invite the next person in.

 

 

𝐢𝐢.

It had been a couple months and Seonghwa  _ still _ wasn’t buying Hongjoong’s whole fake personality. Not one bit. Despite there being countless instances where the slightly younger boy had pretty much proved his authenticity, but Seonghwa refused to give in. 

 

Every other member of the cheer squad had already welcomed all the new cheerleaders with open arms. They had all become fairly close in the short time they had become a team, creating strong bonds and friendships that were sure to help boost their teamwork out on the field. In short, everyone was completely in love with Hongjoong and love to fawn over his every move.

 

Seonghwa had to admit, it wasn’t awful having the tiny boy on his squad. Hongjoong definitely lived up to his promise and worked hard to perfect every move and flip thrown his way. He was actually slowly becoming one of the best on the team, but you’d never hear that from Seonghwa. 

 

It was one of those gloomy days where the sky was covered in a deep grey mask and the smell of not-too-far-off-rain hung in the air. The grass was slick with leftover moisture from when it had rained earlier in the day and the ground was becoming a muddy mess. The cheer squad had been kicked out of the gymnasium by the football team, their coach grumbling about how they couldn’t afford to miss a single practice before their big game the next week. So instead of practicing their formations in the toasty warmth of the school gym, Seonghwa had moved them onto the dreary football field. It admittedly wasn’t the best idea, but they  _ also _ needed all the practice they could get. With a promise from each of the cheerleaders that they would be overly cautious and not do any stunts that would end badly because of the wet grass, the team commenced their practice. 

 

It only took 20 minutes for that promise to be broken. One of the flyers, Jeongyeon, had attempted a back handspring on what she thought was a fairly dry patch of grass. She managed to slip on her way down and land on her wrist, eliciting a loud scream which startled the other members. Hongjoong was the first person to Jeongyeon’s side, immediately moving her wrist around to check for any injury. 

 

“I think it’s just a sprain, nothing serious. You should definitely go to the nurse though.” He explained to the taller girl who was currently wincing in pain. 

 

“I’ll take her.” Seonghwa sighed, pushing past the crowd of cheerleaders circling their fallen member. 

 

Hongjoong smiled up at him shaking his head. “No, its okay. I can take her.” He assured the older boy. “There’s no need for the Captain to leave practice for a sprained wrist.”

 

Seonghwa tried to dispute Hongjoong’s actions but before he opened his mouth, the boy was already pulling Jeongyeon up and off the field towards the nurse’s office.

“We’ll be back before you know it, Cap!” Hongjoong had called, waving his hand way too enthusiastically.

 

A deep sigh swarmed through Seonghwa’s lungs as he turned back to his squad, waiting for his instructions. 

 

“Alright then everyone, get back to practicing! Jeongyeon will be fine.’’ He all but barked, rubbing a hand over his face in frustration. 

  
Why Hongjoong insisted on acting like the cheer squad’s very own self proclaimed messiah was beyond Seonghwa. He just wanted a normal team full of nice, talented people who were all  _ genuine _ . And yet here he was, stuck with a boy who took it upon himself to be so overly plastic it was sickening.

 

𝐢𝐢𝐢.

Seonghwa was relaxing on the gymnasium floor, left arm behind his head and right holding his phone while he scrolled his Twitter feed. The other members were gobbling down snacks and chatting amongst themselves for their 20 minute break during practice. Seonghwa had already scarfed down his protein bar and bag of grapes and had resigned himself to sipping absentmindedly on his bottle of water. He tried to tune out his loud teammates and concentrate on the thread he’d been reading but they were way too noisy at this point. Sighing, Seonghwa and observed the scene unfolding to his right. 

It seemed that Yeosang and Wooyoung had been bothering Hongjoong to give them some of his delicious looking food, who had of course given in. This turned into the other members whining and begging Hongjoong to feed the as well, despite having their own snacks. Eventually the bright boy complied and ended up giving away all his food, leaving none for himself. But of course he was too nice to say anything and simply started cleaning up his rubbish. Seonghwa regarded the boy as he watched his teammates eat all his food with a fond expression on his face. 

“You guys realise you just took all of Hongjoong’s food, right?” Seonghwa blurted, surprising himself by his unplanned words.

A wave of confused faces with full cheeks stared down at him from the bleachers. Hongjoong’s head snapped up to meet his gaze. 

“No, no! I ate enough already, I wasn’t gonna eat anymore anyway!” Hongjoong insisted, waving his hands frantically at the group who were now making their way towards the tiny redhead. 

Seonghwa didn’t exactly know what his intentions were by announcing the fault in his team’s childish actions, but it certainly wasn’t that. Hongjoong was immediately surrounded by food offerings of every kind. Momo held out her half empty bag of Doritos, while Yeosang shoved an apple in his face. Yunho turned himself into a human bear and latched onto Hongjoong’s back, force feeding him Oreos one by one.

The whole team was fawning over the small boy and trying to stuff him with as much food as possible while Seonghwa simply watched the mess of snacks and limbs in the hopes that no one would fall off the bleachers. 

A loud, annoying alarm rung, echoing throughout the gym and breaking up the strange pile of cheerleaders. 

“Alright, back to practice!” Seonghwa called, receiving a chorus of groans in response.

Standing up and turning off the alarm on his phone, Seonghwa glanced back up at Hongjoong. The boy was sheepishly wiping crumbs from his gym clothes and grumbling about how he was “fine” and “didn’t want to eat more”. Wooyoung clearly heard this because he engulfed Hongjoong in a big hug and ruffled his hair fondly. 

“We just wanted to make sure you ate enough, Joongie. Don’t want our baby passing out on us!” he laughed, pulling the whining boy closer to his chest.

Seonghwa rolled his eyes at the scene and started stretching lightly, vaguely hearing Hongjoong’s “I’m not your baby, I’m _ older  _ than you!” which was muffled by Wooyoung shoving another piece of food in his mouth. 

Seonghwa sighed. He  _ still _ didn’t understand why everyone was completely enamoured by Hongjoong. He didn’t particularly plan on finding out either. 

 

𝐢𝐯.

It was their first competition of the season. The whole team was standing on stage crowded between the three other teams from their area. The crowd was buzzing with anticipation as they waited for the judges to finish scoring their votes. The host, a gangly, middle aged man, finally walked out to announce the winners. 

Everyone went quiet, hoping to hear their team’s name called. 

Ecstatic screams erupted from the cheerleaders on either side of Seonghwa’s team. There were streamers and confetti shooting from mini cannons. Loud party music burst from the massive speakers on stage. Seonghwa could hear his fellow team members politely clapping for the winners. But he couldn’t seem to raise his head from where it rested against his clasped hands, in a sort of praying position. His entire body went numb and the next time he lifted his head was when they were collecting their belongings backstage, getting ready to leave. 

A hand on his shoulder woke Seonghwa from his miserable trance. 

“Hey! You’re the Captain of the Treasures, right?” A bright voice rang in his ears. 

He nodded, warily taking in the short boy leaning against the wall in front of him.

“I’m Jisung, Vice from District 9!” The boy grinned. “I know this is a competitive sport and by law of all cheesy, stereotypical American movies you’re supposed to hate me. But I saw how bummed you looked earlier and just wanted to tell you not to take it too hard. It’s very rare that a team with mostly new members will win their first competition. You guys actually did pretty amazing despite that though.”

“Uh…” Seonghwa was stunned, unable to form a proper sentence.

“I didn’t come over here just to compliment you though.” Jisung chuckled. “I actually wanted to give you some advice! The main thing you guys need to work on is your teamwork and chemistry.”

Seonghwa’s brow furrowed in confusion. “Our chemistry? What do you mean by that?”

The smaller boy laughed hesitantly. “Well..I’m assuming that your team hasn’t really spent much time together outside of practice.” Seonghwa nodded. “Yeah, you can tell. There’s just no natural chemistry between your team that attracts the judges and crowd’s attention. It’s kind of like watching robots cheer. Which isn’t as bad as it sounds I swear!! You just… don’t look like you’re having fun or enjoying yourselves because you’re too focused on getting the moves right.”

“Oh.”

Jisung patted the older boy on the back and moved to walk past him . “Get to know your team better. Plan some group events, hang out ,mess around. Just have fun together. If you bring that fun into cheerleading, you’ll be unstoppable.”

With that, Jisung walked away leaving a confused yet hopeful Seonghwa behind.

“Hey, what was that about?” A different voice called from behind him. 

Seonghwa turned to find Hongjoong staring curiously up at him. He turned his back to the smaller boy and went back to packing up his clothes and makeup. 

“None of your concern.” He grumbled. 

“If you say so.” Seonghwa thought that would be the end of their conversation, but boy was he wrong. “Are you okay though? You looked a little more upset than the rest of us earlier.”

Doing his best not to get irritated with his teammate, Seonghwa took a deep breath and calmed himself down. 

“Again, none of your concern.”

“I think it actually is my concern, though. You’re my Captain.” Pushed Hongjoong.

Seonghwa spun around and brought his face impossibly close to Hongjoong’s. Their breaths mingling as the taller of the two growled menacingly at the other boy. 

“So you’re questioning my abilities as Captain now?” He spat.

Hongjoong spluttered, wildly trying to make sense of the abrupt turn their conversation just took. “I-What? No!” 

Rolling his eyes, Seonghwa snatched up his backpack and stormed out of the building. Not waiting for the rest of his team before climbing onto their bus and claiming the very back seat.

When Hongjoong eventually boarded the bus with the other members he looked completely unphased which pissed Seonghwa off even more. The orange haired boy didn’t spare a single glance in the direction of the gloomy Captain, chatting away excitedly to his teammate. Though, it was strange. Seonghwa was  _ definitely  _ angry, but he wasn’t sure why his heart was beating so fast. Or why he couldn’t get the image of Hongjoong’s eyes up close out of his head. 

𝐯.

Seonghwa had actually gone out and taken that boy’s advice. He had gotten permission from their cheer coach to take the squad out on a mini retreat. A three day bonding experience by the beach in the city that took advantage of the upcoming long weekend. They had rented a decent beach house with the help of Yeosang’s CEO Dad and planned out a whole list of activities to help bring the team closer to each other. 

By the second day, Seonghwa could already tell that this retreat was working wonderfully. Judging by how Wooyoung had become completely enamoured by one of their flyers, San, and Soyeon’s blossoming friendship with Mingi. Everything was going great so far. They had spent the first day and a half practicing routines under the pretense that a change of scenery while practicing would be refreshing and good for their spirit. But as soon as it hit 3pm, the whole team was wild with excitement as they had the rest of their trip to mess around and relax together. 

San, being the overly excitable boy that he is, immediately ran towards the ocean once Seonghwa had dismissed them from practice. His bag and shoes carelessly discarded on the sand as he raced into the oncoming waves, laughing and yelling happily the whole time. Just a few moments later the rest of the team followed, some stripping various items of clothing, others not even bothering to take off their shoes. Seonghwa laughed fondly at his team’s antics and begun to gather the discarded clothes and belongings. 

It took a couple of minutes for Seonghwa to notice that two of his teammates were still on the beach, huddled up under one of the massive umbrellas. 

“Hey, aren’t you guys going in the water too?” Seonghwa asked, taking long strides up to the two boys.

The heads of Hongjoong and a concerningly sad Felix whipped up at his question. Felix glanced at Hongjoong in panic, receiving an encouraging nod in return. 

“I..um.” Felix began, fiddling with his fingers. “I’m kind of dumb but I’m afraid of the ocean.”

Hongjoong took the younger boy’s shaking hand into his own and thread their fingers together, giving Seonghwa a look that said “don’t push him on this subject”. 

“Oh! That’s okay, Lix. We all have our own fears.” Smiled Seonghwa, dropping the pile of clothes and bags on the unoccupied sun bed. “I was actually gonna go make some snacks for the others and maybe go for a walk afterwards, wanna join me?” 

Felix instantly brightened back up at the offer. Though he wasn’t the best at cooking, he could definitely slice up some ingredients for sandwiches and put together bowls of chips. The blonde boy nodded eagerly and stood up, releasing Hongjoong’s hand.

“You can go off and swim with the others if you want, Hongjoong.” Seonghwa waved as he turned to walk back to the beach house with Felix. 

“Actually I think I’ll help you guys, if that’s okay.” The redhead jogged up to join them. “I’m a bit too tired to play anyway.”

Seonghwa shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He replied.

  
  


Half an hour and an abundance of sandwiches later, the three boys had moved on to cutting up the whole watermelons they had picked up on the drive over. Seonghwa was directing Felix on how to cut them into a perfect triangle without cutting himself in the process. Hongjoong was silently slicing up various other fruits to put on skewers on the other side of the bench, looking up every so often to smile at Felix’s “cooking” accomplishments. Strangely, Seonghwa kept catching himself glancing over at the lone boy when he wasn’t looking. The delicate flutter of his eyelashes on his cheeks. The way his lips part ever so slightly as he concentrated on the fruit in his hands. The strands of red hair falling around his face. He was a distraction, Seonghwa decided. 

“Hongjoong do you mind grabbing the last two watermelons from the back of the ute? We may as well cut up the rest for tomorrow while we’re at it.” He asked, not daring to look up from the knife in his hand. 

It’s a good thing Seonghwa didn’t look up, because the beaming smile Hongjoong sent his way would have broken the poor boy immediately. 

“Yeah, of course!” Hongjoong agreed, washing his hands quickly before making his way outside. 

As soon as the boy was out of earshot, Felix turned to Seonghwa with an amused look. 

“......What?” Seonghwa was slightly concerned.

“I thought you disliked Joong.” He stated, arms crossed over his chest.

Seonghwa blinked in surprise. “I do? But how did you even notice? I never told anyone.” 

“I could just tell by the way you brush him off most of the time.” Felix rolled his eyes. “You’re not exactly the most subtle person y’know.”

“Oh..”

“But anyway, something’s different today. You keep looking at him weirdly and then pretending you weren’t.” The blonde tapped his chin in thought. “Are you, perhaps, forming a crush on him?”

“A  _ crush _ ? On Hongjoong? The person I just confirmed that I don’t like? Are you actually kidding right now?” Seonghwa spluttered in complete disbelief. His cheeks started to turn pink against his will. 

Felix chuckled at the flushed boy in front of him. “Well your behaviour around him today has been a  _ little _ suspicious…. But if you say so.”

At that moment Hongjoong re-entered the kitchen holding a watermelon under each arm. With one last suggestive look from Felix, the subject of Seonghwa’s feelings was dropped.

The rest of their trip went pretty smoothly. The only hiccup in their plans being Wooyoung forgetting to pack the school’s portable volleyball net so they ended up using a few towels pinned together. Everyone left the beach house with smiles on their faces, laughing about various things they did together while piling back on the bus. Their coach who had stayed at a nearby motel with her partner (to ease the worried minds of the team’s parents) did a quick headcount and jokingly congratulated Seonghwa on not getting anyone killed before taking her seat behind the wheel of the bus. Moments later, they were on their way back to the dreary side of town where their parents were waiting at the school. 

The bus seemed to be more lively than usual. Whether it be because of the close bonds they formed during their trip, or the fact that they went on a trip in general. Seonghwa craned his neck to take a sweeping look at the smiles on each of his teammate’s - no his  _ friend’s _ \- faces. Without realising, he had made eye contact with a certain redheaded boy who was sitting a couple seats behind and smiling directly at him. On a whim, Seonghwa smiled back. This clearly wasn’t what Hongjoong was expecting to happen as his eyes widened in shock and his mouth fell open slightly. Blinking himself back to reality, Seonghwa turned to face the front again and opened the book on his lap. Forcing his eyes to follow the flow of each sentence yet his mind was far away, stuck on the delicate fold of Hongjoong’s cheeks when he smiled. 

Seonghwa made a mental note to thank Jisung for his advice the next time they saw each other. 

 

...+ 𝐢.

Weeks after the beach trip, the cheer team had just finished practicing and were packing up. Hongjoong and Nayeon were on clean up duty this week, but with the latter off sick Seonghwa had been making up for her absence and helping to put away the equipment. The past few days of taking everything back out to the storage shed from the gym had been filled mostly by silence other than their quick goodbyes and the occasional question about practice from Hongjoong. 

Usually Seonghwa would rush through the cleaning process because he either had plans or would be working at his part time job after practice. But today, he was sluggishly slow and taking his time hauling all the equipment back to the shed. He had received a text earlier that afternoon from his boss saying that they had accidentally rostered two people for one shift and decided to let the other person do the shift because they were still new and needed more training. Though Seonghwa was kind of glad he didn’t have to wait tables today, he was also a little annoyed because if he had been told earlier then he could have made plans for the afternoon. 

Just as Hongjoong was setting away a stack of training cones at the back of the shed where a row of shelves stood, Seonghwa came stumbling into the dim room. He had lost his footing on the grave outside the shed and crashed into the open door. The impact of his body smashed the steel door back against the outside wall, causing the rope holding it open to become unhooked. The door slammed closed behind Seonghwa, leaving the two boys staring shocked at each other. 

“Seonghwa...Tell me that didn’t just happen.” Hongjoong spoke, his face filled with fear.

Sighing, Seonghwa turned to try to open the door, though he knew it locked automatically. “It sure did. I suggest you get comfortable, we’re gonna be here a while.”

Hongjoong lurched toward the door in panic and shook the handle wildly. When that didn’t work he started banging against the cool steel with his tiny fists and yelling for help.

Seonghwa simply watched the boy go from wild panic to sullen defeat within the space of 5 minutes. 

“I’m guessing you left your phone in the gym too?” He asked the boy, now crumpled on the floor facing the door with his head resting against it.

A mumbled response oddly resembling “ _ what do you think _ ” came from the small figure. 

“Well, Mr Robins should be here around 6am to set up the field for the soccer game tomorrow.” Seonghwa supplied.

Hongjoong’s head snapped up, his eyes wide. “6am?? You’re saying we’re going to be locked in here  _ all night _ ?!” 

“Unfortunately, yes. It seems so.”

“I can’t believe this. Oh my god, I  _ cannot _ believe this.” Hongjoong muttered to himself. 

Seonghwa rolled his eyes. “Look, I’m sorry if you had plans or something but this actually happens all the time. This is why there’s two people on cleaning duty. Because one of them has the keys to the shed in case they get locked in here. It’s just bad luck that Nayeon happens to have them this time.”

Still stuck in his shaky state of shock Hongjoong seemed to either be trying not to punch something, or trying not to scream. Both were a little more than concerning to Seonghwa. 

“Ah! That reminds me!” Seonghwa jumped up from his spot leaning against a box. “I stashed some supplies in here after the last time I got locked in and had to spend the night.” He started rifling through a pile of boxes on one of the dustiest shelves until he produced a decently sized tin box with a golden Triforce sticker on the top. 

Setting the box down on the floor in front of him, Seonghwa pulled out a couple packs of crackers, a flashlight, a pen, two bottles of water, a mini first aid kit, a protein bar, a chocolate bar, a crossword puzzle book, and a novel. Hongjoong, who had gotten curious and moved to crouch next to the older boy, sighed in relief when he saw the flashlight amongst the other supplies. 

“Thank fucking god.” He whispered shakily.

Seonghwa shot him a curious look but continued sorting through the supplies. He handed Hongjoong a bottle of water and pack of crackers, leaving the two bars for the morning. 

“It’s gonna get real boring real fast. Do you want the book or the crosswords?” He offered.

Hongjoong shook his head. “I think I’m gonna try take a nap. I’m a bit tired right now.” He made his way over to a pile of gym mats and made himself comfortable, hands behind his head and ankles crossed lazily. 

With knitted eyebrows Seonghwa moved the full box over to the center of the room where they could both access it easily and made himself comfortable opposite the now sleeping boy. Putting Hongjoong’s odd behaviour to the back of his mind, he dove into the depths of crosswords he’s probably too young to answer. 

 

Maybe 4 hours later the silence Seonghwa had slowly found comfort in had been abruptly broken by the heartbreaking sound of crying. Barely audible whimpers and sniffling filled the cold air. Eyes wildly searching for the source of the noise in the darkness fell on the small, shaking figure a few metres from him. The boy was facing away from Seonghwa, which made him even more worried.

“H-Hongjoong?” Seonghwa called softly.

No response.

“Is everything alright, Hongjoong?” 

More sniffling.

Seonghwa gave in and creeped over to the shaking boy, rubbing his back soothingly as he hovered over him. 

“Hongjoong..” He whispered, heart slowly breaking as he caught sight of Hongjoong’s tear streaked face. “Do you need anything? I don’t know how to help you if you don’t talk to me.” 

A few moments passed and Hongjoong finally looked up at him with eyes full of terror. 

“I-I’m scared…... of t-the dark.” He sobbed out ashamedly. 

A strangely soft part of Seonghwa took over his brain and immediately brought the crying boy into his embrace, rubbing his back and burying his hand in his red locks. 

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I could have made sure you didn’t wake up to darkness.” He sighed sadly. “We have a flashlight, Joong” The nickname seemed to slip past Seonghwa’s lips naturally. 

Hongjoong pulled away from the hug stubbornly. “It woul-wouldn’t have helped. I just...can’t be in the dark..” 

Glancing around the room quickly, an idea formed in Seonghwa’s head. 

“Hold this, I think I have a temporary solution.” He handed over the discarded flashlight and jumped to his feet. 

A couple minutes go by and Seonghwa had made a circle of boxes and assorted equipment surrounding Hongjoong. The final touch, it seems, was a large blue piece of tarp which he laid over the top of the boxes making a mini fort. 

Quickly grabbing the supply box from where it lay in the room now shrouded in complete darkness, the only light coming from the moon. Finding a space between two boxes, Seonghwa squeezed his way into the small fort to see a smiling boy. Sure, he was still crying. But where there once was a pout, a soft smile now shone in its place.  

A little shocked, Seonghwa timidly sat down cross legged in front of the boy. 

“Is this...better?” He asked, ducking his head down a little bit because he was too tall to fit comfortably.

Hongjoong smiled and placed the flashlight in the handle hole of a box beside him. “It’s perfect. How did you come up with that so quickly?”

“Well um.. I just figured that if I couldn’t light the whole room then the least I could do is make the room smaller.” Seonghwa scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

This made Hongjoong’s smile reach his eyes, turning them into soft crescents. 

“Thank you, truly.” 

“Of course.”

 

The protesting squeak of the shed door opening woke the two boys from their surprisingly comfortable slumber. They startled awake to find themselves almost on top of each other. Their legs were tangled together, arms slung across each other’s waists, foreheads just about touching. Hongjoong’s bright eyes mere centimeters from his face was definitely not what Seonghwa expected to see when he’d opened his own eyes.

“What in God’s name is going on in here?” A loud voice boomed from the door. 

Heavy footsteps stalked towards where the two boys laid, staring at each other in stunned silence. 

Coming back to his senses, Seonghwa detached himself from the smaller boy and stood up, ripping the tarp away in the process.

“Gary!” He cried in relief.

“Seonghwa! Got locked in here again, I see.” The groundskeeper chuckled in response.

Hongjoong stood up and greeted the older man politely. 

“Oh? You weren’t alone this time?” The man exclaimed, giving the smaller boy a once over before looking around at the mess they’d made. “Should I even ask what happened last night?”

Seonghwa glanced at Hongjoong’s reddening face. “Probably not. I’ll tell you next time, maybe.” 

“Alright then, off you two go now.” Gary waved the boys away before Seonghwa could even open his mouth in protest. “I’ll clean up this mess and let your coach know what happened. You best get this young man home. He doesn’t look too good, Seonghwa.”

Seonghwa nodded and thanked the old man profusely, gathering up the supply box quickly and setting it back on the shelf on their way out. Hongjoong trailed closely behind the older boy until they had returned to their bags in the gym. 

“Alright, you live pretty close to me, don’t you?” Seonghwa slung his backpack over his shoulder and immediately hissed in pain from the bruise forming on his shoulder joint. His tackle with the shed door seemingly did more damage than he initially thought. 

“What? Yeah I think so, why?” Hongjoong asked in surprise, looking up from his phone.

“I’m taking you home, of course.” He replied, holding a hand up to stop the younger from arguing.

“Fine.” Hongjoong huffed.

The two boys made light conversation as they walked to Hongjoong’s house, not about anything particularly important, just small talk really.

“So… Gary?” Hongjoong questioned as they rounded the corner onto his street. “You’re close enough to Mr Robins to call him by his first name?”

“Ah, yeah. Well…” Seonghwa chuckled. “Let’s just say I got locked in that shed way too many times before the school decided to give the cheer squad our own key.”

Smiling, Hongjoong focused his gaze on his feet. “People really seem to find a lot of comfort in you then, huh? They kind of gravitate toward you.”

Seonghwa turned his head to look at Hongjoong curiously. “Not really? People actually seem to find me kind of intimidating I think.”

“But you’re so nice though. That doesn’t make sense!” Fought Hongjoong. 

“I guess so. But I don’t really smile enough around strangers so they think I’m rude or mean or something. But it’s just so exhausting trying to be someone I’m not when I’m around them.” 

Hongjoong sighed. “Yeah, misconceptions about your true personality is annoying. I can relate.” 

That shocked Seonghwa. “You can?”

“Well, yeah.” He started. “A lot of people seem to think I’m fake. That I’m so nice and bubbly because I want to manipulate people once they get close to me. There was even a rumour at my old school that I was being fake just to get friends, but I’m not bothered by it anymore. If being a happy and positive person means that I don’t have any real friends, then I’m fine just being by myself in my own little world.” Hongjoong smiled. “And judging by the way you’ve treated me so coldly the past few months since we met, I’m assuming you’re one of those people too.”

Seonghwa’s jaw dropped. Out of all the things he expected to come from their walk home together, this was not one of them. 

The older boy swallowed the nervous lump in his throat. “Okay, yeah. I’m not gonna lie and say I didn’t think exactly that, but it’s certainly not what I think now. It’s not what I  _ know _ .  __ I think at some point during those few months it turned from blind dislike to jealousy. I was jealous that you’re so bright and kind and so easily approachable that everyone swarms toward you as soon as you enter a room. Not that I was jealous of the attention you get, I just… I wanna be like that. It probably boils down to me being insecure about myself as a person but I really don’t think it was ever genuinely about you. Oddly enough, last night kind of helped me finally break past the lingering stigma I had of you.”

Hongjoong was silent, still looking down at his shoes with a small smile on his face. 

“I’d really like to apologise for being so cold to you this whole time.” Seonghwa continued, stopping at the end of the younger’s driveway. “And if it’s okay with you I’d love to be friends with you, or even just acquaintances who occasionally talk outside of cheer practice.” 

A giggle escaped Hongjoong’s pink lips. He beamed up at Seonghwa, almost blinding him before the sun was even fully visible in the sky. 

“I’d love that too.” He replied. “I think the way you helped me last night kind of makes up for everything over the past months. I really, really appreciate what you did. And though it probably seems like such a small, insignificant thing to you it meant so much to me. No one has ever done something like that for me. So thank you again.”

“Hey, like you said to Felix,” Seonghwa smiled. “We all have our own fears.”

The two boys simply smiled at each other for a second or two, basking in their newfound friendship. 

“Okay, I should probably head inside before my parents find my bed untouched. I’ll um, see you at school Hwa.” Hongjoong sprung on to his toes and pressed a chaste kiss against Seonghwa’s cheek. 

Before Seonghwa could even react, the boy was rushing down the driveway towards his front door, red hair bouncing with each step. 

“Yeah..See you, Joong.” He mumbled into the cool morning air. 


End file.
